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I would argue that the 'classic' muds are the ones that focus on gameplay. That's what muds used to be about, before the trend towards roleplaying and story-driven muds.
I think it's more to do with people designing the mud around the thing they hold to be the most important, which is almost invariably the thing they're best at. A good coder who creates their own mud will typically focus on interesting gameplay and original game mechanics. A good builder who creates their own mud will typically focus on a high-quality world and well designed theme. A good administrator will typically focus on imm-run events and a fostering a good atmosphere for the playerbase. Each of these skills are important, although the distribution of importance depends on the style of mud - however the muds that fail often seem to those run by people who don't really have any of those skills, or who are very badly lacking in one or more.
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